Morrowind was massive decline and should be considered as such

[KateMicucci]

Yeah the vanilla game is more or less entirely devoid of damage sponges as far as I can recall, you can kill ascended sleepers in 2 hits with end game weaponry, meanwhile it takes like 20+ hits to kill werewolves.

I think the expansions are kinda bad in general. I guess bloodmoon is ok because at least solstheim feels like a place, but mournhold and its infinite sewers feels terrible.

I don't really think there's anybody out there who thinks the expansions are fantastic. Tribunal's only real redeeming feature is the expansion/proper ending of the vanilla game's story, but you need to fight through a lot of bloated encounters and endless sewers to get there. Bloodmoon is a little better but I think its novelty has worn off as a setting since the release of Skyrim. The allure is Werewolves and snow, and those thing already exist in a larger capacity in a more modern game, even if it's a worse game. Neither are particularly inspired from a gameplay or design perspective and Bloodmoon was also a notable shift towards the degenerate design of Oblivion and Skyrim.

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

The expansions kinda suck.

 

[perfectslumbers]

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

Yeah, probably better to watch Tribunal on youtube. It's the worst piece of content in the entire series imo. Bloodmoon is a bit better but it's not especially worth playing.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

The expansions kinda suck.

From a quality standpoint, they're considerably less half-assed than the main game. They actually bother to script things like town creation. And they started using dialog trees to some degree.

Not that the plots are terribly interesting.

 

[Jaedar]

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

Yes, definitely. Install them later on if you want.
Bloodmoon overrides all the "gossip" dialogue to just point to solstheim until you go there. Which breaks some tutorial interactions in the first village.
Tribunal spawns assassins when you sleep which are tough for some builds to handle, but if your build can handle them you get the second best light armor set in the game for free (or just a huge cash influx).

 

[NerevarineKing]

I always play with mods that delay the DB from attacking and fix the Solsteim dialogue. Bloodmoon is kinda cool, but Tribunal was a bit of a slog with all of the sewer crawls.

 

[Kainan]

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

Yes, definitely. Install them later on if you want.
Bloodmoon overrides all the "gossip" dialogue to just point to solstheim until you go there. Which breaks some tutorial interactions in the first village.
Tribunal spawns assassins when you sleep which are tough for some builds to handle, but if your build can handle them you get the second best light armor set in the game for free (or just a huge cash influx).

I have that armor...
I think that's how I got it, someone attacked me at an inn. And i didn't have to look for any other armor ever again.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

Tribunal and Bloodmoon are intended as post-main-quest content for high-level characters (with a partial exception for the earlier stages of the Raven Rock colony in Bloodmoon), so it wouldn't affect your playthrough to have them turned on from the beginning except that, as pointed out above, Tribunal spawns an assassin with good (and expensive) light armor while Bloodmoon overrides certain dialogue. Consequently, unless they're a requirement for mods you happen to be using, you might as well leave these expansions turned off at first.

 

[Stella Brando]

Over a few drinks, Todd told me that he had wanted to portray the Empire as the Chinese-Aztecs implied by Daggerfall's books, but Morrowind had already shown the Imperials as full blown Romans with Legates and Centurions and everything. He was therefore forced to portray Cyrodiil as a kind of light fantasy Italy.

He then tried to make a pass at me but slipped in his drunken stupor and tumbled to the floor, his high-chair and stack of phone books tumbling everywhere. I immediately tried to flee the scene, but bruised my head on the top of his special round hobbit-door. I then managed to escape without further damage to my person or dignity. I swear everything I tell you his true.

 

[Fluent]

What I love about Morrowind is the handcraftedness and handplacedness ( ) of it all. For first time players without a guide, without looking up things on the internet and just playing blindly, u could spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours looking for and finding hidden or obscure things in the game, and still not have seen it all! It's truly remarkable. I would probably not install the expansions until level 25-30 myself, and then let them do their thing, but other than that, a first-time player is in for one heck of a ride across the island of Vvardenfell. Minimal to non-existent level-scaling, great sense of exploration and natural/"you earned it" progression, secrets abound; it's just a timeless RPG that I will replay forever AND not powergame ever. Why? Because the beauty of Morrowind lies in a natural, non meta/min max playthru for me (your mileage may vary). It's possible to not exploit every possible benefit or exploit to your advantage guys, I promise. Much love all, and long live KING MORROWIND! :D

 

[MWaser]

Quality > quantity.

So removing all the points above is quality. Nice, keep the bar low, don't complain about streamlining then.

Daggerfall had literal level scalling for loot and enemies making the procedural generation for dungeons even worst as you wouldnt really find anything of value if you werent strong enough for that (in which you probably already have strong items you bought in stores anyways) those elements were heavily criticized in later games but people seem to ignore it in daggerfall for some reason.

In regards to level scaling in particular:

There is a reason why this element does not bother people particularly much, and also why people don't really notice Level Scaling in Morrowind either: The answer to it is "existence of unscaled content".

When the game presents unscaled content that sets a minimum challenge level at certain locations that will annihilate you if you're low level, while other areas might "partially catch up" with level scaling, you set up a position where Level Scaling can exist and not really bother anyone or be particularly noticeable. The reason why it was incredibly egregious in Oblivion in particular was the double combo of:
1) Essentially complete absence of unscaled content - You can easily beat the game at the minimum level required for the main quest progress to trigger, and the more you do at a low level, the easier the game is. Even artifacts you get from quests are level-scaled.
2) Linear level equipment scaling omnipresently - Seen as bandits/marauders very obviously scaling up their equipment up to the point where they all carry around incredibly rare/expensive lore-wise ebony/glass/inaccessible-tier Daedric which removes any idea of value existing in these items

 

[Funposter]

Yeah the vanilla game is more or less entirely devoid of damage sponges as far as I can recall, you can kill ascended sleepers in 2 hits with end game weaponry, meanwhile it takes like 20+ hits to kill werewolves.

I think the expansions are kinda bad in general. I guess bloodmoon is ok because at least solstheim feels like a place, but mournhold and its infinite sewers feels terrible.

I don't really think there's anybody out there who thinks the expansions are fantastic. Tribunal's only real redeeming feature is the expansion/proper ending of the vanilla game's story, but you need to fight through a lot of bloated encounters and endless sewers to get there. Bloodmoon is a little better but I think its novelty has worn off as a setting since the release of Skyrim. The allure is Werewolves and snow, and those thing already exist in a larger capacity in a more modern game, even if it's a worse game. Neither are particularly inspired from a gameplay or design perspective and Bloodmoon was also a notable shift towards the degenerate design of Oblivion and Skyrim.

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

Probably, yeah. The other option to just install install one of the various Expansion Delay mods.

 

[Gostak]

It was beautiful and nice to explore for the first time but gameplay was not good.
The world nearly always felt stale and not alive and combat was not fun & good, it being just a game therefore was always
painfully present.
While the first post here is right, Daggerfall is not better in these regards I fear. Otherwise I might be playing Daggerfall Unity now.
openmw with its integrated tes3mp and now beginning lua scripting support and DFU might one day make these really good but so far that
has not yet happened AFAIK.

 

[KateMicucci]

It was beautiful and nice to explore for the first time but gameplay was not good.
The world nearly always felt stale and not alive and combat was not fun & good, it being just a game therefore was always
painfully present.

I played Oblivion before Morrowind. I hate the combat in Oblivion. Hitting people with a sword felt like wacking a tire with a stick. There was no stagger so enemies just glide away from you when they get hit without even having their animation interrupted. And everything had too many hitpoints. So I actually liked Morrowind's crappy combat a lot better!

 

[NerevarineKing]

All Elder Scrolls games have bad combat honestly

 

[Ryan muller]

Quality > quantity.

So removing all the points above is quality. Nice, keep the bar low, don't complain about streamlining then.

Daggerfall had literal level scalling for loot and enemies making the procedural generation for dungeons even worst as you wouldnt really find anything of value if you werent strong enough for that (in which you probably already have strong items you bought in stores anyways) those elements were heavily criticized in later games but people seem to ignore it in daggerfall for some reason.

In regards to level scaling in particular:

There is a reason why this element does not bother people particularly much, and also why people don't really notice Level Scaling in Morrowind either: The answer to it is "existence of unscaled content".

When the game presents unscaled content that sets a minimum challenge level at certain locations that will annihilate you if you're low level, while other areas might "partially catch up" with level scaling, you set up a position where Level Scaling can exist and not really bother anyone or be particularly noticeable. The reason why it was incredibly egregious in Oblivion in particular was the double combo of:
1) Essentially complete absence of unscaled content - You can easily beat the game at the minimum level required for the main quest progress to trigger, and the more you do at a low level, the easier the game is. Even artifacts you get from quests are level-scaled.
2) Linear level equipment scaling omnipresently - Seen as bandits/marauders very obviously scaling up their equipment up to the point where they all carry around incredibly rare/expensive lore-wise ebony/glass/inaccessible-tier Daedric which removes any idea of value existing in these items

Idk, the whole game feels level scaled to hell lmao

I couldnt find a single dwarven gear in mt first hours going into a whole lot of dungeon crawling, just to get to higher levels and find not only dungeons full of dwarven equipment, but even stores selling them like crazy.

Same with monsters, as said i returned to the same dungeon i went before just to find it full of vampires instead of rats.

Its very hard to not notice the game is level scalled to hell.

Which you cant really tell in morrowind.

I agree that isnt as bad as oblivion, but c mon, it definitively is a problem

 

[luj1]

I didnt know Morrowind had level scaling until I began encountering attronachs near Daedric shrines, but this is so insignificant that for all intents and purposes you could say it practically has none

 

[Sykar]

Morrowind actually does have slight level scaling, it’s just so minuscule that you wouldn’t really notice

As said, its so damn insignificant that it really doesnt make a difference.

Morrowind's level scaling is what filled the world with cliff racers past a certain level.

It's tempting and easy to lock the game's progression at lv1 or 2 in bethesda games in order to prevent the worst aspects of level-scaling, but even setting aside the combat balance they have a nasty habit of locking certain quests behind an arbitrary level.

Even New Vegas works best while you stick to lv21 and under with the jsawyer mod and logan's run trait so you don't see plasma-carrying cannibals.

The world is filled with cliff racers from the start.

I literally ran at 10 encounters in sequence last time i started a new character.

It really doesnt matter as far as progression goes because you still will annihilate them in the late game, which dont really happen with some of the enemies in other games.

In fact, morrowind is one of the only games in the series in which you can very easily powerlevel without feeling that the game became harder because of it.

Hell, you can even break the game with Powerlevel in some ways.

Try beating this then:

 

[Fluent]

I never see this mentioned but Morrowind's combat with the dice roll system mechanics and pen and paper style ruleset is phenomenal. Only thing missing was having 3 or 6 second rounds and a pause option, heh. I always wished Morrowind was RTWP, because there's so many cool little bits u can do with the magic in the game, but it's harder to pull it all off in real time. Simulated combat from a first person perspective with those dice rolls and a few seconds per round? You'd have CRPG Dynomite! Imo, anyway. I know it's the minority opinion and clearly Bethesda went in a different direction but hey, a man can dream, right?

 

[Sykar]

 

[Rincewind]

What I love about Morrowind is the handcraftedness and handplacedness ( ) of it all. For first time players without a guide, without looking up things on the internet and just playing blindly, u could spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours looking for and finding hidden or obscure things in the game, and still not have seen it all!

But why would you? In the beginning the world felt very unique and full of secrets and dangers to me, indeed, and the exploration was great! Well, at least on the eastern side of the continent. Then as I levelled up more and more, the combat became basically a joke, I was swimming in money, and "discovering" the 50th copy/pasted bandit cave or burial ground was more like a chore than anything exciting. Most open-world RPGs I played decline towards the end, but in Morrowind it happened so abruptly for me (probably mid-way through?) that I never finished it.

 

[Poseidon00]

I always wished Morrowind was RTWP, because there's so many cool little bits u can do with the magic in the game, but it's harder to pull it all off in real time.

I have always wanted a turn based tactics Elder Scrolls game like Tactics Ogre or FFT. And yeah, you could be creative with spells in that setting especially. Morrowind with its dice rolls (and pre built classes + character creation) actually has the perfect system already.

 

[Fluent]

I have always wanted a turn based tactics Elder Scrolls game like Tactics Ogre or FFT. And yeah, you could be creative with spells in that setting especially. Morrowind with its dice rolls (and pre built classes + character creation) actually has the perfect system already.

Indeed! All that's missing is actual TIME to get these spells and enchantments cast. I mean, u may have a "routine" of like 4 or 5 spells to stand up against stronger foes. It's just not enough time to get them in and it's also cumbersome. With seconds between rounds, u could easily do it and keep the dice rolls. Like a first-person NWN or 2nd Ed imo. Sounds good to me.

 

[Harthwain]

I never see this mentioned but Morrowind's combat with the dice roll system mechanics and pen and paper style ruleset is phenomenal. Only thing missing was having 3 or 6 second rounds and a pause option, heh. I always wished Morrowind was RTWP, because there's so many cool little bits u can do with the magic in the game, but it's harder to pull it all off in real time. Simulated combat from a first person perspective with those dice rolls and a few seconds per round? You'd have CRPG Dynomite! Imo, anyway. I know it's the minority opinion and clearly Bethesda went in a different direction but hey, a man can dream, right?

Not sure if this is a bait designed to stir up another RTwP-TB war, but I actually think Greedfall had an interesting idea for a combat system in which the game automatically pauses when you're not giving it any input, meaning you can play it at your own pace.

 

[grimer]

morrowind combat

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Is it better to play Morrowind the first time without the expansions?

I don't think you can get them separately anymore, just get some mods that delay the expansion hooks until you're past a significant point in the main story. Otherwise tribunal will throw stuff at you early on that will break the gameplay/economy. A lesson bethesda never learned (vampire spawns in skyrim).